Regulators are moving to allow a majority of U.S. home purchases to be conducted without licensed appraisers

The next time you buy a house, your lender might deploy a drone and a computer algorithm to size up the property instead of a tape-measure-toting human appraiser.

Federal regulators are moving to allow a majority of U.S. homes to be bought and sold without the involvement of licensed appraisers, by increasing from $250,000 to $400,000 the value of homes exempt from a human evaluation.